A new hope! Booting from an iPod Episode II

For as long as there has been USB on the Mac, one constant has remained: you …

For as long as there has been USB on the Mac, one constant has remained: you couldn't boot from a drive connected to the USB bus. Most Mac users didn't care. We had Firewire, a 'faster' (even if it was just in our minds), more convenient alternative. Not being able to boot from a USB drive was rarely an inconvenience. Then the unpossible happened: Apple took the Firewire out of the iPod. Individuals who once booted happily from their tiny, white package were now out of luck.

Enter the Intel processors! According to 'Wolf' Rentsch of Red Shed software fame, the new Intel based iMacs can now boot from USB drives.

You can boot off USB drives on Intel-based Macs. This opens the world of USB 2.0-only drives to Macs users as bootable backup devices.

Oh, you know what's coming now don't you? Speculation! (Shouted like the introduction to the School House Rock song Interjection!) I lack the iPod or the Intel Mac to test this theory but one has to wonder whether or not one can once again boot from the iPod. People who repair Macs on a regular basis might soon rejoice.